The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of June 26
Keith "One Time" Thurman scored a narrow-but-impressive unanimous decision over "Showtime" Shawn Porter on Saturday night at the Barclays Center to retain his WBA Welterweight Championship.
The fight delivered in a big way, especially considering it was on network television, hopefully in front of many viewers new to boxing, and we'll take a look at whether or not it belongs in the conversation for Fight of the Year.
Next, we turn to the continued fallout of Canelo Alvarez's odd career move. The cinnamon-haired superstar will challenge WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith in September on HBO pay-per-view, and nobody is really sure why.
All that, plus, the return of Richard Schaefer to the boxing world, Anthony Joshua's big win in his first title defense and Andre Ward's final test before facing Sergey Kovalev in the fall.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week.
Does Canelo Deserve the Criticism?
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Yes, Canelo deserves every bit of the criticism he's received and will continue to receive for once again kicking the can down the road on a fight with Gennady Golovkin and reaching down (in both weight and class) to challenge Smith for the WBO Junior Middleweight Championship.
There's no excuse, and there's no defense for this fight.
And it's on HBO PPV, no less.
Good luck selling that mess to the public.
There's simply no logic behind this move, and to ask fans to shell out extra cash is an insult. All parties ought to be ashamed of themselves, short of Smith, who, deserving or not, has the opportunity of a lifetime.
The announcement comes just days after a wildly overblown "agreement" between Golden Boy Promotions (Canelo's promoter) and Tom Loeffler (GGG's promoter) to push a highly anticipated clash between Canelo and GGG to next fall at the earliest. The word "agreement" is in quotation marks because nothing is written down, and we've seen this play before.
Per Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole, Golden Boy's logic behind that decision was the desire to build the fight up more to ensure its commercial success and allow Canelo a few fights to gradually build up to full middleweight. Build up to middleweight? That's why it makes so much sense to drop down a weight class?
No offense to Smith, who by all accounts is a decent fighter, but he barely even rates in the top 10 of his division—belt or not. Both ESPN, per Dan Rafael, and The Ring magazine rated him No. 8, but he holds zero wins over notable opponents.
Canelo and team have been skewered all over social media ever since this fight was announced, and all of that criticism is deserved.
It should and will continue.
Does Thurman-Porter Deserve Fight of the Year Consideration?
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Thurman and Porter put on a high-level battle on Saturday night in Brooklyn, New York, with One Time emerging with a narrow unanimous decision to retain his welterweight title in front of a raucous crowd.
The Brooklyn fans lustily booed the official verdict (Bleacher Report's unofficial scorecard, from yours truly, favored Porter by a 115-113 score), but there was no controversy here. This was a legitimate swing fight that could've been scored for either man by a point or even a draw.
Any card of 115-113 for either Thurman or Porter was perfectly legitimate.
There should really be no controversy whatsoever here in what turned out to be a brilliant stylistic matchup that deserves some consideration for Fight of the Year. It wasn't the brutal hide-the-children slugfest that Francisco Vargas and Orlando Salido inflicted on each other a couple of weeks ago, but it was a damn good fight.
It probably won't win Fight of the Year, but given the high mark Vargas and Salido set, it's an accomplishment to even enter the conversation.
Thurman appeared deeply uncomfortable for a large part of the fight, but he landed the harder, cleaner shots in many of the rounds to secure the nod on the scorecards. Porter, who was seeking to become a two-time champion, won over most in the crowd with his relentless swarming attack and didn't see his stock drop one bit in defeat.
Both men showed why most in the sport rate them among the very best fighters in a crowded and wide-open welterweight division, and the fans would welcome a rematch in a heartbeat.
What Should Fans Expect from Richard Schaefer's Return?
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Schaefer, who served as long-term CEO of Golden Boy Promotions and built the outfit into a boxing-industry giant before a contentious 2014 split with company founder Oscar De La Hoya, is back in the business.
Rafael reported on Thursday that Schaefer, whose non-compete clause, which was signed in the settlement with Golden Boy expired last summer, has formed Ringstar Sports, a new promotional company, and has been licensed to promote in New York, Texas and California, with Nevada pending.
The new company, which Schaefer heads, hopes to promote its first show by the end of this summer.
The former Swiss banker is certainly a polarizing figure to some in the industry. His handling of his latter days at Golden Boy and his relationship with uber manager Al Haymon, who was having his fighters promoted by but not signed to De La Hoya's company, raises some serious questions.
But his impact was undeniable. He's a smart, savvy businessman with a deep pool of contacts in the sport.
Those include fighters, managers (particularly Haymon and his deep stable of talent) and networks. He's already said he'd like to work with Haymon once again through his Premier Boxing Champions series, and you can bet that will happen, likely sooner than later.
It's going to take some time for operations to get on their feet, but once Schaefer has all the moving parts in place, you can be certain that he'll become a big factor in the sweet science once again.
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Where Does AJ Rate in the Heavyweight Picture?
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Joshua successfully defended his heavyweight championship with an impressive stoppage of gutsy but overmatched American challenger Dominic Breazeale on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London.
Breazeale, like Joshua, competed at the 2012 London Olympics. He failed to medal (AJ captured gold) but opened his career with 17 consecutive victories to solidify his position in the second tier of the heavyweight mix and earn a championship opportunity for what really amounts to a secondary title.
Tyson Fury holds the recognized title, but he was forced to postpone his scheduled July 9 rematch with longtime champion Wladimir Klitschko due to an ankle injury suffered during training.
Rafael reports his sources call that story into question, with the sense that Fury, who has made no secret of his lack of conditioning since winning the title, was just not prepared for the fight in a couple of weeks' time.
So, with the legitimate title currently in limbo, where does Joshua's big win put him in the hierarchy?
He's up there, but there's another young fighter looking to take his spot.
Joshua looks to be headed toward a mandatory defense against fellow unbeaten uber prospect Joseph Parker in the fall, per Jack Damerell. That's one heck of a risk for both guys, who are considered to be the cream of the crop when it comes to the next generation of big men, and it has something of a throwback feel.
It might seem a tad early, but the winner of that fight would walk out of there with more than a belt. He'd be the undisputed future of the division, which is no small thing.
Why Is Andre Ward Fighting Alexander Brand Ahead of Kovalev?
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Andre Ward has reached a deal to face Alexander Brand in August in what figures to be his final tune-up fight before moving on to challenge unified light heavyweight champion Kovalev on HBO PPV in the fall.
The fight will take place August 6 at the Oracle Arena in Ward's hometown of Oakland, California.
Brand is about as nondescript a guy as you could expect in this type of a spot.
Rafael reported (via Bad Left Hook) he was one of the finalists for the fight, along with unbeaten Swedish prospect Erik Skoglund and former champion Nathan Cleverly, and looks like nothing more than a guy who will give Ward some rounds before the toughest challenge of his pro career.
Brand is 39 years old and hasn't beaten a single opponent of any significance. He's spent virtually his entire career at super middleweight, and his most notable fight was a narrow split-decision loss to Badou Jack in 2012.
It doesn't seem to make a ton of sense to take on such a soft challenge (against a guy of this age with this little experience who hasn't fought in this weight class) with the bruising Krusher sitting in the on-deck circle.
Ward appears to be looking to just keep himself busy and in fighting shape, since there's virtually nothing here that says Brand will even so much as present him with a challenge.
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